Embedded

Professor Angela Sodemann of @ASU spoke with us about new ways of teaching, robotics, and haptic displays. Angela’s robotics courses can be found at RoboGrok.com, including the parts kit. Note that they focus on creating usable robotics as well as teaching theory so there is math, code, and hardware.  

Noah Leon made a film: Love Notes to Newton. It features the people who love and the people who built the Apple Newton. We spoke with him about the Newton and about filmmaking. Noah runs Moosefuel Media. He wanted to mention Frank Orlando of OrlandoMedia, the art designer for the film and promotional material. Profits from Love Notes to Newton go to Be The Match, a registry of bone marrow donors. You can sign up for the Newton mailing list at NewtonTalk.net. The book about the Newton development is Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton by Markos Kounalakis. The documentary about Compaq is Silicon Cowboys (Netflix).  

Helen Leigh (@helenleigh) is an author, education writer and maker. She spoke with us about making learning fun (and subversive). Her latest book is The Crafty Kid's Guide to DIY Electronics, out in November 2018. The instrument gloves were the mi.mu (full version) and the mini.mu DIY kit (coming soon to Pimoroni and Adafruit). The mini.mu uses the BBC Micro:bit. Helen worked on earlier books including Mission Explore from the Geography Collective. These are out of print but still obtainable (and may be in your local library). She recommends the book The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. For meeting people in education and technology, Helen is looking forward to the next EMF Camp. As far as tech and education conferences, the BETT trade show is interesting. We mentioned “Phoenix” a few times, that is Phoenix Perry who was on episode 204: Abuse Electricity.

Christopher (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) talks about vacations for learning and hobbies then answered listener questions. Chris’ toys include the Prusa I3 Mk3 and the UAD Arrow. Elecia likes Camille Fournier’s book, The Manager’s Path. She also got to plug her own book, Making Embedded Systems: Design Patterns for Great Software.   Pacific spiny lumpsucker (Eumicrotremus orbis) at the Seymour Science Center

Brandon Wilson (@brandonlwilson) shared his stories about hacking TI calculators (and other things). TICalc.org has the latest on getting started yourself including Z80 assemblers, or start on Brandon’s website: brandonw.net Bradon will be speaking at Hardwear.io, a security conference for the hardware and security community. The conference consists of training (11th - 12th Sept 2018) and conference (13th - 14th Sept 2018). It is in The Hague, Netherlands. His talk is The Race to Secure Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators. He will also be hosting a village called Dumping the ROM of the Most Secure Sega Genesis Game Ever Created. Topics: 00:00:00    Introduction     00:00:33    Brandon Wilson     00:01:39    Lightning Round     00:02:37    Calculators!     00:03:58    Programmable calculators, using TI BASIC     00:05:00    Ti-85, programmable via assembly language     00:06:35    App store for my calculator?     00:07:34    How does TI prevent cheating?     00:09:41    Testguard for teachers     00:12:53    Some are WiFi capable     00:13:41    How Brandon learned to hack the TI 00:15:12    Processors used in the TI calcs 00:16:39    What tools are available for reverse engineering? 00:17:42    Breaking the keys     00:18:49    Flash unlock protection     00:20:14    TI hacker  community     00:21:32    TI used 512-bit RSA keys      00:22:32    Key broken after 2 months of brute force 00:22:58    TI threatened the first key breaker     00:23:31    Built a distributed community to attack keys 00:24:38    TI was not happy      00:25:03    DMCA takedown notice 00:27:28    EFF offered to help      00:29:30    The ethics of circumventing TIs protection     00:33:23    Calculators as a platform for learning HW/FW     00:35:11    Hackers' responsibility toward the hacked     00:39:05    Hacks Brandon is uncomfortable with     00:42:55    Bug bounties, are they effective?     00:44:02    Brandon's other projects      00:44:26    TI calculator processors used all over     00:44:50    Sega Genesis 00:47:54    Code execution via the Sega Genesis CD     00:53:35    Calculators changed my life (back up)     00:54:21    Other projects, USB      00:55:31    Abuse the USB protocol     00:58:24    Modifying USB flash drive FW     01:03:21    Reverse engineering tools     01:06:13    Hardwear.io conference, Brandon's hacking village     01:09:22    Brandon's Final Thought     01:10:19    Outro     01:11:20    Final Quote  

We spoke with Axel Poschmannof DarkMatter LLC(@GuardedbyGenius) about embedded security. For a great in-depth introduction, Axel suggested Christof Paar’s Introduction to Cryptography class, available on YouTube. We also talked about ENISA’s Hardware Threat Landscape and Good Practices Guide. Axel will be speaking at Hardwear.io, a security conference for the hardware and security community. The conference consists of training (11th - 12th Sept 2018) and conference (13th - 14th Sept 2018). It is in The Hague, Netherlands. DarkMatter is hiring.  Elecia has some discount coupons for the Particle.io Spectra conference.

Derek Fronek spoke with us about FIRST robotics. His TechHOUNDS (@TechHOUNDS868) team is based in Carmel, Indiana. They won the state competition and placed 5th in the high school FRC championship. Derek mentioned the roboRIO controller board, TalonSRX speed controller, and the Spark motor controller. Many of these offer deep discounts to FIRST robotics participants. Check out FirstInspires.org to find a team near you. The game comes out in January but many teams start forming in September. Derek’s personal website includes his other projects and a way to contact him. Sparkfun has an autonomous vehicle competition, this is their 10th year. Elecia wrote a related blog post for Derek, a few notes about media training.  Music for after you finish the episode

Chris (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) celebrate the 256th episode with a confusing lack of cupcakes. IAmTheCalvary.org has an excellent Hippocratic Oath for Connected Medical Devices  Make Magazine has some tips to tighten security on DIY IoT Projects. Rockstar Language Specification (and FizzBuzz example)  The C++ episode discussed was #247 with Jason Turner. Topics and Times: 00:00    Zero 00:27    Intro and cupcakes 03:09    Patreon and Slack 04:24    Transcripts, chapter markers? 07:48    Listener question:  ST HAL, Cube, SPL, Bare Metal? 14:22    Hippocratic Oath for Connected Medical Devices 19:32    Make magazine article on DIY IoT Security 22:36    NYC Embedded and Engineering Meetup? 23:42    C++: Expressiveness, optimization vs. good code 30:21    C++: Spec size vs. C#/Java 32:22    A question of parentheses leads to mild violence and ranting 35:43    Rockstar: The Language! 43:59    Wherein we "discuss" Rust for some reason, again. 46:45    Elecia's Projects in Python and JSON 50:18    Elecia's available for gigs! 50:50    Elecia's ML overview blog post 51:38    The end of Embedded 52:42    Wrap up 54:04    Winnie the Pooh continues...  

Ariel Waldman (@arielwaldman) spoke with us about how science, art, and all of the other disciplines can build a better world. Ariel does many amazing things, it is hard to list them all. Homepage: arielwaldman.com YouTube: arielwaldman   Science Hack Day: sciencehackday.org and Twitter @ScienceHackDay Space Hack directory of ways to get involved: spacehack.org Patreon page: arielwaldman Book: What's It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts council, look at niacfellows.org to apply. Ariel fell in love with NASA while watching the When We Left Earth miniseries.

Gabriel Jacobo (@gabrieljacobo) spoke with us about embedded graphics, contributing to the Linux SDL, using MQTT, and working far from his employers. Gabriel’s blogand resumeare available on his site mdqinc.com. His github repo is under gabomdq.  SDL is Simple DirectMedia Layer (wiki). It is not so simple. For MQTT-based home automation, he uses the Raspberry Pi Home Assistantbuild and many Node MCUs(ESP8266s running Lua, Micropython, or Arduino Framework).